El Obrahuelo-estufas (stoves) and home visits

It's been a long time since I last posted, which reflects the busyness that has just occurred!

At the beginning of the month, Marie and I went to a small town called El Obrahuelo to serve as translators. It was a great experience!

We were working with some adults and teenagers from Marie's parent's church to build stoves, teach English, and visit homes to encourage the locals.

Building Stoves
Seeing some of the conditions that the people from El Obrahuelo experience when cooking gave us a new appreciation for the stoves that we were building. Before they were cooking over fires that used lots of wood to cook something small like soup. Many times they cooked inside a covered shack that kept all the smoke inside. This caused many "eye-shots" where smoke enters your eyes and causes an intense sting. Jerry and Mike, two of the adults from Wisconsin, experienced this first hand when they cooked corn for us. "How can they cook like this everyday?" was their question. But thanks to the generosity of monetary donations and the labor we accomplished, there are 3 fewer families that need to cook like this anymore. Praise the LORD!

The new stoves are built out of concrete blocks and firestone bricks (I think...). They are structured to conserve heat so less wood is needed. They also include a chimney, which eliminates the "eye-shots" that many experienced.

Home Visits
After building stoves, we then spent some time planning and relaxing before we went on our home visits. These were a great experience, especially as a translator! I was forced to rely fully on the Lord to help me understand what was said in Spanish to translate it into English for my group of 3 Americans with one local church leader and 2 or 3 other church attenders. I also had to depend on the Lord for wisdom to remember the correct words and conjugations to effectively share the stories of the 3 Americans. The home visits really strengthened my ability to speak and understand Spanish.

This experience also helped me see a new part of the Guatemalan culture. The people that we visited did not know we were coming. We came with only a couple bags of rice (if you have ever packed rice for Feed my Starving Children or Kids Around the Word this is an example of how it is used) and our stories. The people immediately welcomed us into their homes and listened to what we had to say. Some asked questions and some simply listened, but we pray that the Spirit of the Lord will continue to work in their hearts.

This is something that 3 women in Obrahuelo continue to do consistently. We continue to pray that the work they do and the message they bring will continue to change lives and encourage others to pursue Christ or return to Christ.